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New Year’s Resolutions

One year ends, another begins. A time to reflect, a time to look ahead. My resolution once again is to get to grips with the Georgian Language. This was my resolution last year 2015 resolution and the year before and the year before that…

I have some ideas of how to go about learning a foreign language, I need to get away from the theory and start the practise even 40minutes a day, consistently, should reap results. It is important to communicate with people and I have the perfect opportunity living here in Tbilisi, Georgia.

2015 wasn’t an especially remarkable year. I continue to teach English to private students ranging from 4 to over 50 years old. We went twice to UK, the first time to see my mum and the second time to help her to move into an old people’s home (my brother, Danny, did most of the work). In 2016 we would like to go to Italy.

We visited some interesting places in Georgia, mostly on trips with my wife’s colleagues. Khevsureti was spectacular and involved a very long walk to the Abudelauri lakes.

Abudelauri Lake (Blue)

I seem to spend far too much time on Facebook interacting with 801 friends, many of whom I’ve never met in real life.

The blog continues to get more views over 11 000 in 2015. Thank you for your views and comments.

The Diecast blog gets far more views but far less likes and has a different geographical spread of viewers.

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Diecast blog : top 10 countries by views

I have been taking my granddaughter to school, a chore, I find to be quite pleasurable and we have a few photo opportunities en route. Ana is getting good at seeing interesting pictures and modelling accordingly.

Ana in the autumn leaves en route to school.

Happy New Year to all my viewers and followers, I hope 2016 brings you happiness and fulfilment.

My New Year’s resolution every year for the last five years has been to learn Georgian, and every year my progress has been woeful.

How can I make this time different?

Suggestions welcome.

What has stopped me before ?

My laziness, learning a language is hard work, I like an easy life.

My busy schedule…some days, I have too much to do, to fit in learning Georgian. But only some days. Khato, my wife, is far busier than me, but still finds time to fit in her prayers amidst all her tasks in the day. If I could spend the amount of time learning Georgian as she does praying I’d be making significant progress.

Distractions (especially Facebook), I spend a lot of my spare time on Facebook (often uploading photos) or following obscure threads….that aren’t usually very important.

On January 1, we’re all in. I’m going to do it! A month, a week, or a day later, we’ve backed out.
Nowadays, the word “resolution” almost comes with the understanding that it will fizzle out by February. Better to re-frame the process and call it a goal.

Vague platitudes (“learn Georgian”) are less effective than specific directives (“I will do an exercise from Basic Georgianby Nana Danelia each day”).

Basic Georgian is currently what I am resting my laptop on.

I know where to find my copy of “Basic Georgian”

Motivation research tells us that three things need to be present to sustain your fire over time: autonomy (you control what you do, rather than letting others dictate it); competence (you have some success the more you do it); relatedness (you share the experience with others). Which means: You can manufacture your own motivation by choosing an action that includes all three elements.

How’s this for a terrible irony: the more you want your goal, the less you’re likely to plan for it, according to a forthcoming paper in the journal Behavioral Science and Policy, that’s because we tend to think good intentions are enough, but an actual planprevents procrastination. People with plans stick to their goals way more often than those who wing it.

People have been making resolutions for thousands of years. Even the ancient Greeks and Romans made promises to their gods at the beginning of a new year.

Setting New Year’s resolutions doesn’t have to be a daunting experience. It’s the perfect opportunity to sit down and set short- and long-term goals. It’s time to decide what things in your life you want to improve and how to go about doing it.

Last year I made the resolution to have functional Georgian by the end of the year. Sadly like most resolutions this wasn’t kept. There were some spurts of interest but not the sustained study and effort necessary to keep this resolution. So, this will be carried on to 2014. I can start with the goal of reading two books in Georgian by the end of January.

1. Be specific – General and vague goals often go by the wayside. In 2014, my fiftieth year, I’d like to make the pilgrimage to Compostela. I will need to walk regularly to get myself prepared for two weeks of walking (I’m thinking of taking the route from Porto to Compostela : 2 weeks, 285 miles or 458km). I walk around an hour each day but I ve never walked for a long distance over several days.

2. Track progress – Using a chart is a great way to keep motivation high. I do have a notebook bought in 1990, where I keep records of the books I’ve read, lengths I’ve swum, model cars purchased etc…

3. Work together – Setting goals with someone else is a great way to motivate each other and be accountable. Never having smoked, I don’t need to give up, but understand it is easier if you give up with someone else.

4. Be realistic – Finally, goals have to be realistic. Someone who has never run a day in her life can’t run a marathon tomorrow.